For the head of a family used to taking about £300m a year in dividends from its steel empire, the crisis in the industry has been chastening. As chief executive of the Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal steel giant, Mittal, 65, has a stake worth £3.3bn, down a dramatic £28bn from its peak. The company lost £5.5bn last year as prices crashed due to huge overcapacity, particularly in China, and it stopped paying a dividend last November.
Steel has been Mittal’s life since his childhood in India, his father, Mohan, having built up his own steel operation there. At first working in the family business, Mittal moved to Indonesia in 1976 to avoid government curbs on the industry. In 1995, after settling in London, he separated his own operation from the family’s Indian businesses. He then went on the acquisition trail, buying and turning around underperforming businesses worldwide. A series of deals led to the creation of ArcelorMittal in 2006. Mittal, whose son Aditya and daughter Vanisha sit on the board of ArcelorMittal, first featured on our list in 1997. He topped it for the first time in 2005 and his £27.7bn wealth in 2008 was the biggest fortune achieved by anyone on the Rich List before or since. Topping the list eight times is also a record.
He made headlines when he paid more than £300m for three houses in Kensington Palace Gardens, known as Billionaires’ Row, and is also a shareholder in QPR football club, along with his son-in-law, Amit Bhatia. Mittal has consistently given to charity through his company’s foundation, which spent $18.5m in the past year, and also personally. The family’s largest donation was £15m to Great Ormond Street Hospital in 2008 towards the cost of the Mittal Children’s Medical Centre.